A top CNN executive has launched a searing attack on the major U.S. television networks, accusing them of failing to give adequate coverage to foreign news.

In an op-ed piece in the French newspaper Le Monde, CNN International Networks president Chris Cramer said this failure is hampering Americans’ ability to understand the deadly terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Cramer says the vast majority of U.S. news media are guilty of “committing the worst crime in journalism: the failure to make interesting what is important.”

He argues that the belief among editors that the American public is not interested in foreign news has led to a self-fulfilling prophecy. “If we don’t cover international news, there’s little chance of the audience being interested in it,” he says.

The CNN exec says the American news diet consists chiefly of local news, baseball results, the weather and weekly lottery winners.

“Many news executives think the lack of interest in foreign news is shown by the fact that less than 20 percent of Americans have a passport,” he says.